27 June, 2012

See you later England

I’ve been a long time absent from the blogosphere, mainly
because I’ve been willingly absent from the racing scene for the last month or
so. I’ve been doing my best to pretend I’m not a cyclist; and succeeding far too
well! It's been the best part of 5 weeks since I left the motherland of two wheels (Belgium obvz!).

I did the National 25 mile time trial a few weeks back and
was disappointed to finished 8th with
a 50:36. Not to sound like an egomaniac but I know I’m capable of going a lot
faster (mainly because I did go a lot
faster the week before at a local 25. I did a 49:07 on a training wheel which
would have bagged me 4th place but never mind. It’s done and dusted
now and I’m certain I won’t be driving 5hrs each way again for a time trial any
time soon!

Feeling rather lethargic and sorry for myself at the National 25.

I started the National Road on Sunday and bowed out
gracefully after realising I couldn’t hack the pace 3hrs in. Having only done a
Castle Combe circuit race as preparation (2nd by the way, thanks for
asking) I had it coming to be honest. I’m certainly well rested now after feeling
rather deflated from the amount of racing last month: the problem is I’ve now gone
the other way and I’m under raced!

Looking like a whopper chopper at the National RR. I have put my saddle up since!

I returned to Belgium on Monday and did my first race today. It was
a UCI 1.2 so nothing like a christening of fire, and it had the finishing
circuit from hell which had over 3km
of cobbles every 15km. I bottled it again and got dropped at about 3hrs and was determined to
finish in my little group but they pulled us out with one lap to go. I’m going
with a new psychological method to stop myself getting teary eyed when I do
crap in races which is me saying to myself “Yeah, let’s build on this form
legs. You're doing really well. Loads of other people pack races too. It’s the taking
part that counts”. It’s like having Mr Motivator in my head.